Bulletproof skin stops a speeding gunshot

What if your skin could resist a speeding bullet? Now a new futuristic tissue designed by artist Jalila Essaïdi, which reinforces human skin cells with spider silk, can stop a whizzing projectile without being pierced. Although its threads may look fragile, a spider-silk weave is four times stronger than Kevlar, the material used in bulletproof vests.

In the first clip, the bioengineered skin cushions a bullet fired at half speed. But its resistance has its limits: when shot at a full speed of 329 m/s, the bullet pierces the material and travels through it. The same tests were also performed with piglet skin, human skin and human skin fused with regular silkworm silk, which were all penetrated by bullets of both speeds.

An international team worked together to create the new material. First, transgenic goats and silkworms equipped to produce spider-silk proteins spun out the raw material in the synthetic biology lab at Utah State University. The cocoons were then shipped to South Korea, where they were reeled into thread, before being woven into fabric in Germany. The modified silk was then wedged between bioengineered skin cells developed by biochemist Abdoelwaheb El Ghalbzouri at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. After five weeks of incubation, the hybrid skin was ready for target practice.

So in fact the material does /not/ stop a speeding bullet, only one going at half speed? The title is misleading.

Kaitlann
on January 30, 2012 3:46 PM

First of all, The fact that they made your read in order to learn about this is an stupid move because some people are interested in this kind of stuff but are to lazy to read. Second, the title was misleading. In the passage, it says quote: " the bioengineered skin cushions a bullet fired at half speed." reminds me of false advertising.

Meester G
on January 30, 2012 3:47 PM

It did stop a speeding bullet; just not one going at full speed. Still perhaps a better title would be 'Bulletresistant skin stops slow gunshot in lab conditions but you'd still end up dead in the real world'. :)

All joking aside, it's a step in the right direction, and it's great to see this sort of work, especially considering the different possible applications.

Jonathan Rochette
on January 30, 2012 8:20 PM

Even in the case of bulletproof skin, the bullets would still cause a ton of damage to internal organs. It's still very cool.

Michael Dowling
on January 30, 2012 11:51 PM

If it didn't penetrate,removal would be just a matter of pulling on the cloth,although it might go deep enough to be fatal.